Nature Tourism Issues and Strategies

Nature-based tourism is defined as responsible travel to natural areas, which conserves the environment and improves the welfare of local people. It is tourism based on the natural attractions of an area. Examples include hunting, fishing, birdwatching, photography and visiting parks. These experiential tourists are interested in a diversity of natural and cultural resources. They want what is real, and they want to be immersed in a rich natural, cultural, or historical experience.

Interest in nature tourism is growing in Texas as rural communities look for ways to diversify local economies and landowners look for ways to diversify ranch income. Texas rangelands comprise 59 percent of the total land area of the state. As a state that is 94 percent privately owned, the wildlife resources of Texas are entrusted to the stewardship of private landowners. A basic tenet of wildlife management in Texas has been to empower private land managers with information, technical assistance, and incentives to manage wildlife populations for the public good as well as for individual economic gain.

Many landowners in Texas currently derive substantial income from wildlife-associated recreation in the form of hunting and fishing on their private lands. The 2001 Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-associated Recreation showed that fishing contributed $2.0 billion to the state's economy, while hunting contributed $1.5 billion, and wildlife watching $1.3 billion. Interest in nature-based tourism is rooted in a growing understanding among landowners that providing recreational opportunities for emerging markets of experiential tourists is another important way to derive economic benefit from the natural resources found on private lands. Activities such as birdwatching, photography, backpacking, horseback riding, mountain biking, wildlife viewing, and canoeing are increasingly popular as urban residents and visitors strive to connect with the outdoors.

From the standpoint of conservation, nature-based tourism provides incentives for local communities and landowners to conserve wildlife habitats upon which the industry depends - it promotes conservation by placing an increased value on remaining natural areas. As nature tourism becomes more important to the local economy, communities have additional incentive to conserve their remaining natural areas for wildlife and wildlife enthusiasts.

From a state perspective, the goals of nature-based tourism in Texas are to: promote habitat conservation, promote sustainable economic development, and build broad-based public support for wildlife conservation programs. Texas Parks and Wildlife has chosen to implement a nature-based tourism program that is uniquely suited to a private land state such as Texas. Our efforts are concentrated on providing a diversity of recreational opportunities to an increasingly urban population of Texans as well as to a growing number of visitors from other states and countries. We have done this by providing wildlife viewing driving trails such as the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail and Great Texas Wildlife Viewing Trails, and by working with private landowners and communities to develop nature tourism enterprises. Our goal is to connect people with nature by making it easier for them to enjoy the natural resources of Texas and thus to care about conserving them.

The nature-based tourism efforts in Texas will continue to focus on achieving habitat conservation by providing information and assistance to private landowners, communities, businesses, and local community leaders wishing to make nature-based tourism an integral part of their business and community. By empowering people at the local level, we hope to build and provide guidance to a growing industry that holds great promise for sustainable economic development and conservation of wildlife habitat.

Through partnerships with other state agencies and local organizations, TPWD has been able to do more for landowners and communities. TPWD is an active member of the Texas Nature Tourism Council (TNTC), part of the Texas Travel Industry Association. As part of the TNTC, TPWD is able to meet regularly with nature tourism counterparts in Texas Department of Agriculture, Texas Cooperative Extension, Texas Historical Commission, universities, communities, landowners and others interested in nature tourism. The Council makes it possible for agencies to coordinate workshops and outreach efforts to prevent duplication of work. These partnerships are important to the continued success of nature tourism workshops and educating communities and landowners on incorporating nature tourism into their business plans.

Technical Guidance

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is actively involved in nature tourism development on both the community level and the private landowner level through the work of the nature tourism coordinator. The nature tourism coordinator currently works one-on-one with landowners in a variety of ways. When possible, the coordinator meets with landowners when they initially have their site assessment done by private lands biologists from Texas Parks and Wildlife. The nature tourism coordinator supplements the biological site assessment with guidance on potential nature tourism ventures that could work on the property as the landowner implements suggested habitat management techniques.

Through presentations at landowner workshops, TPWD also provides assistance, answers questions, helps locate available resources and makes contacts with landowners throughout the state. The nature tourism coordinator speaks at workshops and works closely with the previously mentioned partners to ensure the workshops are as in-depth and informative as possible.

TPWD also provides site visits and assessments to communities interested in developing a nature tourism program. Site visits and technical guidance for communities involves a tour of potential or existing nature tourism destinations in an area, meeting with Chamber of Commerce or city officials, and developing some practical goals for the community. When invited, the nature tourism coordinator also assists the Texas Historical Commission with site visits to their Main Street Cities as part of their Resource Team, providing the tourism expertise to the team. These are usually more in-depth site assessments.

Education/Outreach

In addition to working with landowners and community leaders, the nature tourism coordinator also oversees development and maintenance of the Great Texas Wildlife Viewing Trails, a driving trail system that guides nature tourists to the best wildlife viewing sites the state has to offer. In developing these trails, the nature tourism coordinator works directly with many landowners, site managers, public land managers and community leaders educating them about the benefits of nature tourism destinations, how to reach their market and possible site enhancements to make their site more readily accessible to wildlife viewers.

Land Acquisition, Restoration and Monitoring

The Nature Tourism Coordinator oversees the partnership between TPWD and the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory (GCBO) to run the Great Texas Birdwatching Tournament. This tournament is a self-funded event co-sponsored by TPWD and GCBO that raises money for habitat conservation, restoration, acquisition and monitoring projects along a 41-county area of the Texas Coast. Restoring existing habitat and acquiring new habitat is essential to ensuring stopover habitat for neotropical migratory birds as well as providing year-round habitat for resident animals.

Conservation Actions

Continue to work cooperatively with other organizations doing nature tourism work with landowners and communities. This allows cooperation in the use of resources where necessary and ensures the best technical guidance possible to landowners and communities both one-on-one and in workshop settings.

Develop a nature tourism certification program for public and private landowners and nature tourist destinations. A certification program would give incentives to tourism destinations to conserve and restore native habitat in Texas. Additionally, tourists visiting Texas would be able to research tourism destinations based on requirements met or exceeded by certified locations.

Develop workshops as needed in areas of the state that havelandowners and communities interested in nature tourism. These workshops should follow proven formats, contain the top subjects from previous workshops, and should be marketed widely through all of TPWD’s partners so as to reach the widest audiences possible.

Fund habitat acquisition or restoration through the Great Texas Birding Classic benefit migratory birds and populations of other native species. If additional funding is available, TPWD would be able to contribute to the habitat projects funded through our partnership with the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory.